Philosophy and Literature

Abstract:

How does Samson, who is portrayed in the opening of Milton's drama Samson Agonistes as a wretched prisoner, slaving away at the mill in Gaza with both his eyes put out, transform into an autonomous agent? This essay finds in the distinction between the A- and B-series of time, made by twentieth-century Cambridge philosopher J. M. E. McTaggart, a key to Milton's representation of the inner movement in his fallen biblical hero from despair to agency. For Milton, only an A-structured mind, which perceives time as temporal passage, may ultimately lead to regeneration.